Remarks as Prepared for Secretary Bodman
Thank you, Andy and thank you all for coming.
I want to start by thanking the title sponsors including BP, Sprint, the American Institute of Architects, the Countrywide Association of Home Builders, the US Green Building Council, and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers that partnered with the D.O.E. to make this year's Solar Decathlon a great success.
Thank you as well to our supporting sponsors Honeywell and Blue Egg and the Decathlon's many contributing sponsors, including our colleagues at the U.S.D.A..
I'd like to thank the Members of Congress here today for joining us as well as the representatives from governors' offices and foreign dignitaries that have come today to show support for their teams.
I'd also like to recognize Jeff Lyng from the Colorado Governor's office; Jeff was the plan manager for the previous Decathlon's winning team. I'm glad you're here with us.
And I want to thank the many departmental employees, both here and at the Countrywide Renewable Energy Laboratory, who have labored long and hard to pull this event together and who are not thanked often enough for their work.
Thank you as well to the distinguished group, too many of them to name here and now, who have donated their time and expertise to serve as judges and jurors for this year's competition. But most of all I want to thank the 20 teams of college and university students and their advisors who are participating in this year's Solar Decathlon.
You've come to us from all over the U.S. and Puerto Rico, from Canada and from Europe. I want to thank you personally as well as on behalf of the Department for your efforts and for your dedication to science and engineering and to the process of exploration and discovery.
I have to confess that being part of the Solar Decathlon is, in my experience, one of the best things about being Energy Secretary. I am, by training, an engineer. And, in the early days of my professional career, I was a university professor. So I am keenly interested in what is going on here over the next week. The Solar Decathlon affords some very able young minds the opportunity to work in practical ways on very complex problems.
These houses, which are the result of all your hard work, are all marvels of engineering and design, of creativity and innovation. And I know this because I've seen it for myself. I've already been down here to visit with the decathletes and tour the village. Lest there be any doubt, I was very impressed.
The competition that begins here today has, for the decathletes, been in excess of a year in the making. The challenges presented by our desire to harness the power of the sun are, in my judgment, considerable. That these young people, these young scientists, engineers and architects would take it on speaks well of them and for the future of energy security, here and around the world.
We can and will meet those challenges through the diversification of our energy supplies and suppliers, but also through enhancements in efficiency like the ones you will see here on display at the Solar Decathlon. This is not just a teaching exercise; it's a working lab of innovation that will help point the way to a brighter, more secure energy future for all countries, including the United States.
The D.O.E. is proud to sponsor this competition.
The Solar Decathlon complements President Bush's Solar America Initiative, which looks for to make solar energy cost-competitive with conventional forms of electricity by 2015. Looking forward, we face great challenges as a nation challenges to meet the increasing demand for energy and to develop new energy sources that are less harmful to our environment.
The Solar Decathlon is, of course, about you, the decathletes. It exists partly to encourage young people like you to pursue careers in science and engineering. I walked down that career path myself; I know how exciting and stimulating it can be.
We hope it will encourage young people to think creatively about renewable and energy efficient technologies, its benefits and about energy needs, consumption and security. But there is another, equally important purpose behind it that I want to mention.
The Solar Decathlon is also about improving and enlarging the ways we develop and apply solar energy technology. And now, with global energy demand expected to double over the next 30 years, we have reached a point where there is a convergence of enhanced energy efficiency with the need to generate clean, secure energy. Each of these homes must provide the energy needed by a typical family, but only through solar power.
The 10 individual contests occurring here in the next week or so are an opportunity for these teams to show us ways to generate great savings in overall energy consumption and new strategies for increasing energy efficiency.
This competition to design, build and operate the most attractive, effective and energy efficient solar-powered home lets our student decathletes demonstrate technologies and methods of construction that are increasingly being used in the marketplace.
The winner of the 2007 Solar Decathlon will be the team that has best blended livability and modern conveniences with maximum energy production and optimal efficiency. This is, in my view, a difficult competition. It requires a team effort and a steady one. In the Solar Decathlon, victory is not earned through one single endeavor; it comes only after a consistent display of excellence throughout the competition in a variety of disciplines.
On behalf of the entire D.O.E., let me say to the students how proud and pleased we are that you are taking part in this competition. Each of you has already accomplished truly remarkable things, as individuals and as a team. Each of your teams has earned your place on this field.
As I said just a moment ago, every one of your houses is a marvel of engineering & design, of creativity & innovation. And now, before I turn the podium back to Assistant Secretary Karsner, let me wish you all good luck.
Thank you.
